Kevin Donahue popped the game tape into the control deck. As images of Syracuse’s first two scrimmages against Fairfield and Le Moyne last Sunday flashed on the television screen, the assistant coach instantly saw what was wrong.

This wasn’t the offense head coach John Desko had in mind when he introduced it to his team during the fall session. That offense emphasized a mix of motion and zone in which players spread out across the field and quickly penetrated the attack circle.

With Desko inheriting a crop of highly touted freshmen recruits and transfers, the head coach wanted to hit the ground running with the offensive schemes during fall ball. Similarly, Donahue didn’t waste time, expecting the offense to formulate itself Tuesday during the first practice after the scrimmages. He made the necessary adjustments right away. This Saturday, SU will see if its offense improves on the field when it faces Navy for a scrimmage at noon at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md.

‘That was the best we played all year,’ senior attack Joe Yevoli said of Tuesday’s practice. ‘Just with two scrimmages, we saw the tape and saw what we were doing wrong.’

The way SU ran the offense didn’t follow Desko’s model. Granted, SU only played two scrimmages and it made some strides with the offense Sunday. But Syracuse often didn’t spread out on the field. When it did, the Orange usually over or underthrew its passes. And when SU dropped some of those passes, the team failed to scoop the ground balls crisply.

On Tuesday, that all changed. The team played the entire field and looked ready to attack. Senior midfielder/attack Brett Bucktooth said the offense clicked enough for players to feel comfortable improvising.

‘There were a couple of really special plays where if you were on defense you saw (defensive coach Roy) Simmons go after them,’ Bucktooth said. ‘We played around with the defense for a little bit. We were able to have some nice, easy looks on offense.’

On Sunday, SU looked promising with Yevoli, Mike Leveille and Kenny Nims leading the attack. But SU played without two key players – Bucktooth and Greg Niewieroski – due to undisclosed injuries.

Bucktooth practiced this week and Desko expects him to suit up against Navy. Niewieroski performed line drills but did not participate in any involving contact. It’s likely he will be absent for the second weekend in a row.

That could’ve been part of the reason why Syracuse struggled scoring. After Sunday’s scrimmages, Desko said he expected his team to score around 15 goals each game. SU played only three periods each scrimmage, but the Orange had multiple opportunities to attack the cage. Instead, SU only mustered a 5-3 win over Fairfield and a 9-7 victory over Le Moyne.

‘You’d expect us to be a little bit higher scoring coming out of these scrimmages,’ Desko said. ‘So we need to create more opportunities for ourselves. Some of it was execution. Some of it was trying to make things happen too quickly. When you got the number of talented players we have, we have to function as a group.’

Navy, which SU beat in the 2004 National Championship, features more talent than last weekend’s opponents. Whatever made SU jell on Tuesday needs to work in Annapolis, Md. on Saturday.

‘Whatever mistakes we make the first time around, we want to avoid making the same silly mistakes,’ attack/midfielder Brian Crockett said. ‘Each week we want to eliminate more and more of that and improve as we go on.’

Published on February 9, 2006 at 12:00 pm